Austin Peay beats E. Illinois 69-60 for OVC title

Turns out a 31-point loss on the road to Eastern Illinois
provided all the motivation her team needed.

Nicole Jamen led five Lady Govs in double figures with 19
points, and Austin Peay beat Eastern Illinois 69-60 for the Ohio
Valley Conference tournament championship Saturday and a second
straight automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The Lady Govs
(15-17) clinched their seventh OVC tournament title, second only
to Tennessee Tech's league-best nine.

Since losing 78-47 at Eastern Illinois on Feb. 25, the Lady Govs
have won four straight.

"That was really embarrassing," junior Ashley Herring said. "We
weren't ready for that game at all. I think that was just a
light bulb, like, we can't come into a game not prepared. That
was a big factor of realizing how we have to start from the jump
because we were digging holes."

Not on Saturday.

The closest the Panthers got this time was a tie at 2 in the
opening minute before falling behind by as much as 17. An 8-2
spurt by Eastern Illinois pulled the Panthers within 30-22 at
halftime. Ta'Kenya Nixon's jumper in the paint got them to 40-39
with 12:19 left.

Austin Peay reeled off 12 straight points to rebuild its lead
back to double figures as Herring hit a jumper, then blocked
Dominique Sims' layup and grabbed the rebound. Hanley hit a free
throw and then blocked a jumper by Nixon. Rayner hit a couple of
jumpers, her second pushing the lead back to 52-39 with 8:06
remaining.

"Maybe we got worn out with the energy that it took to get it to
that point," Eastern Illinois coach Brady Sallee said. "It's
tough when you dig yourself a hole like that, not only to dig
your way out but to finish off what you're trying to do."

Eastern Illinois tried to fight back once again and whittled
Austin Peay's lead to 66-60 with 29 seconds left when Herring
fouled out, before running out of time.

The Panthers (23-10) came in having won the regular-season title
and playing in the tournament championship for the third
straight season in a rematch of last year's title game when
Austin Peay needed double overtime to win.

"This is the irony of college basketball," Sallee said. "The
best teams don't always win, the No. 1 seed doesn't always win.
That's why everybody tunes in and watches these things. ... It's
disappointing tonight, but we have to wake up and get going and
be ready to play another game (in the NIT). That's what we'll
do."

The Lady Govs outrebounded Eastern Illinois 47-40 and held the
Panthers to 29.5 percent shooting for the game. Jamen had 11
rebounds, while Rayner grabbed 10.

It was a big difference from a team that took then-No. 21
Pittsburgh to overtime in December before losing 76-75 and then
was routed 87-41 at Xavier in the next game. But the Lady Govs
went 11-7 in league play to earn the No. 3 seed.

Daniels, who led Austin Peay to the NCAA tournament as a player
in the 1990s, now has coached her alma mater to two straight
NCAA berths. She got emotional as she recalled how difficult
this season was for her.

"I always believed in this team and knew the talent that we had.
We didn't always perform the best throughout the season, but I
never gave up on them," she said. "They turned it on at the
right time."